"The Glory of the Lord'

Forgiveness comes from who God is, not who we are or what we do.

God goes with us just as he went with the Israelites.  We have the Holy Spirit as our guide.

Jesus is our sun; he is our light we should reflect in the world.

Sermon notes.  Based on scripture from Exodus 33:12-23.

Pray Like Jesus

I finished reading Pray Like Jesus; Rediscovering the Lord's Prayer by Don Underwood last night.  It was an excellent read, and has introduced a few things to me that I am trying to implement in my daily life.  It takes something that is so commonly recited and makes you think about the words that come from memory and apply them to my life and thoughts.  It made it so much more than just something we say during church every Sunday into something I'm trying to say daily now. 

I'm praying it with my girls so they will learn it too. 

Do I get tired of waiting on God to answer?  Our culture, myself included, has instant expectations. 

We must keep God in the center of our lives and trust him.

God changed his mind in the story of Moses and the Israelites.  He didn't kill them all, he just didn't allow them to the promised land.

Our choices matter.  We can change God's mind.  Everything is not pre-determined by God; we have free will.

We must share our stories with each other and give God the credit.

My notes above are scattered from this past week's sermon.  The scripture was from Exodus 32: 1-14. 

There are no coincidences.

Our Pastor said this to me Sunday during our church service, and I have to agree.  There are far too many things that are aligned so perfectly in teaching and lessons that only God's perfect timing could create. 

I was the liturgist Sunday and after I finished reading the scripture, I sat down to say; part of this scripture is the same that I taught the past week in ROCK group.  And she said "there are no coincidences."

The first several Sundays she preached at our church, our Sunday School lessons and our sermon lessons matched so very well.  She was taking scripture from the Old Testament, our lessons in Sunday School were from the New Testament. 

God you know when we need to hear the same message over and over to learn; thank you for continuing to provide us the opportunities. 

Fear

Just a snippet from the (in)courage blog I read today by Tiffany Parry.

"There is only one fear that can erase all the rest: the fear of God."

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. (Philippians 2:12)

http://www.incourage.me/2017/10/one-fear-erases-rest.html

But even if HE doesn't...

...HE is still good.

"Words to Live By"

This week's sermon text was from Exodus 21:1-4, 7-9, 12-20.

My notes are a bit more scattered.  It was communion Sunday so my focus was dividing between listening to the service and keeping the kiddos in line!

The notes I did take centered around putting God first, loving others and forgiveness. 

Put God first.  We try to earn out way to God, but we are incapable.  We need GRACE.  We don't deserve GRACE; grace isn't fair.

The church is about relationships.  The 10 commandments are a tool to help. 

It is about what we think, not just what we do.  We can't follow the rules alone and be successful.  We need a SAVIOR.  We must never stop forgiving.  As we never stop receiving forgiveness. 

Forgiveness makes us like Jesus.

Love God.  Love Others.

Love Your Neighbor.